


you were a kindness

by orphan_account



Category: The Charioteer - Mary Renault
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 05:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15212525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ralph and Laurie meet again, in somewhat unexpected circumstances.





	you were a kindness

**Author's Note:**

> this is self-indulgent & silly i'm sorry

It’s over in a flash of light and a deafening roar, and then there is silence.

But the silence does not last long, for a familiar voice - one Ralph hasn’t heard for seven months and four days, to be exact - is calling his name.

He turns, and Laurie is smiling, walking towards him. His limp is gone; his leg healthy. He is whole, in a way that would certainly be impossible, if he weren’t - if Ralph weren’t -

 _I’m dead_ , he realises. _There was an air raid. The house must have been hit._  - and he remembers the noise, the confusion, the claustrophobia.

But Laurie is standing before him now, a smile lighting up his face. “Hello, Ralph.”

And Ralph’s memories of the previous life fade, and grow dull, and the endless wearisome string of events that led him to this place cease to matter. He reaches out, pulls Laurie into an embrace. _We were together, and then parted, and now we shall never be parted again._ “I’ve waited so long,” he is saying, or something like it - and there must be tears streaming down his face, for his vision is blurred.

Laurie pulls back, kisses him lightly on the mouth, and takes his hand. “I know, my dear. Come on, let’s go home.”


End file.
